Unable to afford the $500 rent for her bedroom in a Carson home, she fears eviction and possible homelessness.

“Being homeless on the street, I know I wouldn’t survive,” Chavez said.

The soft-spoken, diminutive woman is one of the millions of unemployed Americans who face poor job prospects this Labor Day.

Competition for each job opening is already fierce, with nearly five workers actively searching for work for every available position.

But the 57-year-old’s situation is even more dire because she is among older workers who face additional challenges, including obsolete work skills and discrimination.

“A lot of them thought they were done with work and then here they are,” said Barry Waite, Carson’s business development manager, who runs a center that offers job training and search services. “They have to reinvent themselves.”

The need for reinvention comes in a miserable economy that has seen people’s home values, pensions and personal savings plummet, forcing some retirees back into the work force.

In Chavez’s case, a change in her living arrangements came at an especially inconvenient time.

She had been living with her daughter in Lomita after neck and back problems forced her to retire and leave her longtime job as a veterinary technician assistant in 2000.

But Chavez needed to find her own place in April after her daughter moved out to live with a friend.

Chavez rented a room in Carson and went in search of a job.

She figured government assistance – $221 in welfare payments and $200 in food stamps each month – would make the transition from retirement to work easier.

But her job search has dragged on too long, and now she faces eviction.

Chavez acknowledges she lacks certain skills that would make her more attractive to prospective employers.

“I’m not really trained for too much,” Chavez said. “I retired pretty early and took care of my grandchild. So I missed out on a lot. I don’t have a computer now.”

She recently turned to Waite’s Carson Career Center for help. The center, a satellite office for the government-funded South Bay Workforce Investment Board, helps job seekers gain marketable skills and find employment leads.

In July, the Carson center added a job-training program for people 55 and older.

“The seniors definitely have challenges because … there’s more competition for fewer jobs,” said Jan Vogel, executive director of the Hawthorne- based investment board. “A lot of companies like them (seniors), and a lot of companies say, `Well, it’s going to cost us more in medical insurance.”‘

Cassandra Peranteau, who joined the Carson office to run the seniors program, finds nonprofit groups, government agencies as well as companies to place her clients for on-the-job training.

The federally funded program pays the senior workers $8 an hour, 20 hours a week, as they gain training. That experience presumably will help them find a steady job.

“That’s the problem with people in her age bracket. They’ve been retired so long that their skills need upgrading,” Peranteau said. “That’s one of the purposes of our program, to get them skills, and get them some work history.”

Gaynell Mixon, 56, also has turned to the Carson center for help.

She started looking for work three to four years ago after money started getting tight.

Mixon had retired in 1999 as an IRS revenue officer after she became afflicted with multiple sclerosis, a degenerative disease that damages the nerves.

The Carson resident has been confined to a motorized wheelchair since 2003.

“I have a double-whammy,” Mixon said of her age and disability.

Mixon recalled how she went to a job interview for a telemarketing job earlier this year.

“They called me in and said they liked my resume,” Mixon said. “And when they saw me in a wheelchair, they were, like, `Ooookay.”‘

The furniture arrangement at the office didn’t allow Mixon to maneuver her wheelchair to the interview area. So she was interviewed at the front desk.

Mixon didn’t get the job.

One of the challenges seniors face in searching for a job in this economy is the emotional fallout as “your self- esteem goes way down,” Chavez said.

“They see gray hair. You just feel that you’re tossed aside, not capable,” Chavez said. “A lot of people, you try to talk to them, and here they get in their cars and they get in their houses and they’re safe in the night. And you kind of wonder, `How come this is happening to you?”‘